Church Attendance UP
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PewDiePolls has found a small increase at religious services from 2017-2019, with a little over a third of Atlasians now saying they worship weekly and 27 percent saying they go rarely or never, a modest increase from previous years. Self-reported weekly attendance at evangelical churches enjoyed a small increase as well, at 61 percent.
Much of this growth is attributed to the increasingly popular "emerging church" movement, which largely consists of Christians involved in mainstream evangelical churches that have "emerged" from preexisting ideologies and church structures. The movement's emphasis on community, redefining the church experience, cultural application of faith, and general discontentment with the evangelical status-quo traces its roots back to the Jesus Movement of the 1970s.
Many of these "emerging churches" embrace what clergy and parishioners alike describe as "hipster Christianity," or the recent shift away from the "smells and bells" old guard of traditional Christianity to a more unorthodox, stylized 21st-century church. Common in hipster Christian circles is an appreciation for modern hardcore punk bands, such as the local Minneapolis-based band,
Better Red Than Dead.
Members of the band Better Red Than Dead being interviewed at their church on MSNBC
This new, progressive-flavored Christianity has not been without its setbacks. In late February, the United Methodist Church (UMC) voted to maintain its traditional stance against same-sex marriage and non-celibate gay clergy, bolstered by a growing conservative contingent of church leaders from Africa and the Philippines. The UMC's judicial arm upheld the anti-LGBT plan on Friday.
The vote reinforced the sentiment that the UMC is a much more thoroughly global, evangelical church, rather than simply a mainline, Atlasian church with an influential, theologically "progressive" branch.
The Rev. Laney Denham-Foote, senior pastor at Minneapolis's St. Paul United Methodist Church, remains optimistic that the "emergent church" will continue to grow despite these defeats at the general conference.
"People know us. They know what we're all about, and our church will continue to welcome all people. This is really a grassroots movement, and particularly as Millennials ascend to the leadership positions, I think you'll see that they'll turn our church apparatus in a better direction," she said, hinting at the possibility of a future schism within the UMC.
